The NSA is targeting t-shirt makers who produce designs parodying the federal agency’s involvement in the spying scandal, shutting down free speech by means of intimidating threats of copyright infringement.

“The NSA is using copyright claims to actually shut down t-shirt makers who are making fun of the NSA and they’re squashing that freedom of speech claiming copyright infringement,” award winning reporter Ben Swann told the Alex Jones Show.

Swann, who formerly worked with Fox 19 before launching his own media operation, said the case represented an “amazing story” and stressed that intimidation was at the center of the copyright claims, which had little to do with the actual law.

“They simply make the claims and use muscle to force their way to control the narrative,” added Swann, noting that parody is a clear form of fair use.

Swann said that the federal agency began contacting all the websites on which the design was hosted and made them pull it down claiming copyright infringement. the t-shirt in question merely used the NSA logo as a template for the design.

“The NSA, the DHS don’t have to go to court and fight for that and that’s the issue….the judge would look at it and say that’s a parody, you don’t have a case,” said Swann, pointing out that the threatening nature of the claims alone are causing not just small businesses but also media outlets to back down and have their First Amendment censored.

“This isn’t about a t-shirt company, this is about testing the waters to say how are we going to make sure that we don’t even have to prove anything under rule of law, we’re simply gonna go in, we’re gonna hammer the small guy, we’re gonna take away his right to talk about us, we’re gonna take away everyone’s right to talk about us – that’s what the issue is here,” said Swann.

Swann also highlighted the fact that the process was about creating a history of case law to establish the precedent of stamping out free speech via copyright claims.

The full story about the NSA targeting t-shirt makers over parody designs will appear at BenSwann.com on Monday.